


the end of the world and

by FortuneSurfer



Category: Justified
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Explosions, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Post-Apocalypse, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:55:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25182868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FortuneSurfer/pseuds/FortuneSurfer
Summary: Almost every survivor has had it. It’s a part of maturing, almost like losing your virginity again, except disproportionately unpleasant: the moment when you realize that it truly is the end of the world.
Relationships: Boyd Crowder/Raylan Givens
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	the end of the world and

**Author's Note:**

> A drabble I wrote at the beginning of this year, when apocalyptic themes still were something from the realm of imagination.

Almost every survivor has had it. It’s a part of maturing, almost like losing your virginity again, except disproportionately unpleasant: the moment when you realize that it truly is the end of the world.

You would think that it occurred to most people sometime after they had seen the destruction of their property. Or lost their loved ones either to zombies or to the disease that had created them. Or had seen others become something worse than flesh-eating monsters. And without a doubt, such chain reaction must have been the most common type of epiphany. But there were some other times when the trigger was far more subtle. With some, it hasn’t even been a thing happening to them personally.

According to Helen, she had this moment for real when she heard Boyd asking Raylan:

“Can I interest you in a bottle of bourbon, old friend?”

(She wasn’t spying on them, of course, she couldn’t sleep and was getting some fresh air in that yard in the hope to calm her nerves and wasn’t at all hiding under that stairs, as she repeatedly told him; she was just waiting for the guards to change; she didn‘t want to answer their stupid and invasive inquiries and be sent back to her tent; that’s why she was eavesdropping, she just wanted to be alone.)

And Raylan, not on guard anymore, replied with a question: “Whaddaya got?” and an impressed whistle, after being presented with the said bottle. “Is there a celebration?” To which Boyd laughed. “Seriously, you scavenged that yourself or do you have friends in high places?”

“Now you offend me by assuming I wouldn’t have such connections, Raylan. And to answer your initial question: every day of being safe and sound among friends deserves to be celebrated as a feast, don’t you think.”

There was confidence in the way he said “friends.”

“True.”

_(Imagine my surprise! No silly excuse, or dumb excuse,_ _or lecture, or threat. You just agreed to drink with your old Crowder friend, like a civilized person I had tried to raise you to be. That’s how I knew it must be the end of the world.)_

Raylan, of course, told Helen that she was unnecessarily dramatic and sarcastic, which she was, but she was also right. There is no other explanation as to why he is thinking about that conversation about that other conversation almost two months ago, a week after their biggest zombie cleansing operation.

The operation that was finished when he and Boyd ran out of that stadium – ablaze after their successful explosion – like they had run out of that mine for the last time, twenty years ago. How they were shaking and laughing, how Boyd jumped onto him. How they were holding each other for dear life and a minute later – kissing before they knew it.

And Raylan knows, as he’s always known, that adrenaline, like alcohol, can make you many things, but it can’t make you that… whatever their relationship status is now. He and Boyd don’t talk about it, don’t give this deep care and tenderness any name. Raylan knows why he can’t do it now and suspects that for Boyd the reason is the same. To admit it aloud would mean to make it real, to tempt their fate when they’ve already lost so many others. Maybe things will change after Loretta will rebuild this place.

For now, it’s enough to know when they’re alone and sharing that yet unnamed and fragile, but incredibly, breathtakingly strong and reliable feeling. Even if it’s the end of the world – every end is the beginning of something. And it’s up to them to make their something so beautiful that it will make them hold on no matter what.  
  
God knows they'll need it.


End file.
